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Narya

I think it is likely that Gandalf gained his power over fire when he got Narya, the elven ring. Remember that it was called the Ring of Fire?

I doubt it. Remember that the Istari were not to use their powers to dominate. Gandalf seemed to have no power over fire ("I cannot burn snow"), though he implemented it. I believe that the words of Círdan tell us the most:

". . . For this is the Ring of Fire, and with it you may rekindle hearts in a world that grows chill. . ."

Therefore I believe we can assume that the Ring was used to strengthen his purpose: to "kindle the hearts", even as he did to Théoden. There was an interesting thread in the Barrow-downs discussion forum about this very point, but I can't remember where it is. I'll post a link if I can. --Narfil Palùrfalas 13:05, 15 December 2006 (EST)

But isn't said elsewhere that he could only show so much of his power to certain people? Which is why the hobbits of the Shire only knew Gandalf as a master of fireworks? --Quidon88 13:11, 15 December 2006 (EST)

Fireworks are not neccessarily a result of "magical" power over fire. They knew Gandalf "only" as a wandering conjurer and master of fireworks. This is the least of his art. I can't find a quote as I don't have the Letters with me (at the library, alas), but it does say he could only show his full power in greatest need, and then only in defense (as he did with Durin's Bane and the Witch-king). The other elven rings were used to preserve and protect their realms; they had no offensive capabilities so far as we know. I see no reason to assume anything else that it was for except what Círdan said: to kindle people's hearts against Sauron, which was the mission of the Istari in the first place. --Narfil Palùrfalas 13:24, 15 December 2006 (EST)

"only show his full power in greatest need". That was what I was getting at, I just couldn't get the thoughts to words, thanks.--Quidon88 13:42, 15 December 2006 (EST)

Editing Article

I've been working my way through this article trying to clean it up and make it more of an 'encyclopedic' entry. Please let me know if I slash too much.

Much of this article is very poorly written and the text continually diverges from the subject matter into minutiae and tangential issues.

Don't worry about it. Change as much as you like. This article was a rewrite done by myself alone. In other words, no-one has really edited it and filled it out. I personally thought that the information about Sauron's movements was very relevant, but I really shouldn't be the one to comment on it. Most of our main editors are absent for some reason or another, but they'll probably give you some input when they come back. --Narfil Palùrfalas 19:52, 7 August 2007 (EDT)

Thanks. I'm new here but very knowledgeable about Tolkien's works and letters. I'm trying to delete extraneous information. It seems to me that if the encyclopedic aspect of this site is to succeed then articles need to be rather specific to their subject. Of course I could be totally wrong... Thanks for the input.Glorfindel Mk. II 22:29, 7 August 2007 (EDT)

Crusade Against Sauron

This section title is totally inappropriate as the section deals with preparations and early skirmishes between the council and Sauron. I changed it to 'Preparing for War' although there are probably better titles.

There were battles earlier in the Third Age and in the Second Age that could be better termed 'Crusades against Sauron' but certainly not this interim period prior to the war of the Ring.

The title "Crusade against Sauron" was used because I couldn't think of anything better. It was Gandalf's ongoing vigilance against the Enemy; his crusade. Doubtless there are better titles, but I cannot think of any at the moment. "Vigilance against Sauron", perhaps? --Narfil Palùrfalas 19:52, 7 August 2007 (EDT)

O.k. now I see where you are coming from. My POV is that 'crusade' has a specific meaning derived from the 'crusades' of the middle ages and those were organized (well semi-organized) endeavors involving thousands of people. Thus the Numenorian army that Sauron surrendered to was a 'crusading' army and I suppose the 'Last Alliance' could also be called a 'crusade.' I changed it already as it prefaces the central 'War of the Ring' section. BTW, I think 'Early Vigilance' is perfect. I like the flow of 'early vigilance,' 'preparing for the war,' and 'the war.' Feel free to change back; we can take a vote later when the other primary editors return. Glorfindel Mk. II 22:34, 7 August 2007 (EDT)

Olórin

Perhaps make a separate section for "Olórin in Valinor"? I recently noted this draft by JRRT and the following statement by CT:

"'He was humble in the Land of the Blessed; and in Middle-earth he sought no renown. His triumph was in the uprising of the fallen, and his joy was in the renewal of hope.' This appears in Vq 2, but my father subsequently placed inverted commas round it. It was wrongly omitted from The Silmarillion."

If others agree, I (or someone else) could surely have enough info to write such a section ("The later Quenta Silmarillion has some other goodies on Olórin in Valinor, but I'm not sure if everything can be considered "canon" straight off). (HoMe 10) --Morgan 22:41, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

Redirected names

So, what do you all think? Since many of the articles on Gandalf's various names are quite intricate, how do we most simply keep all good information in this article? While merging Láthspell, I tried instead to add all the headings from the first article under the section "Láthspell", but it doesn't look very good (and it's confusing for the reader). Should we make a Gandalf subpage (Gandalf/Names), which deals with all his names? --Morgan 21:44, 18 November 2011 (UTC)

If anyone wants an example of what such a subpage could look like, we have done something similar on Tom Bombadil/nature.--Morgan 22:17, 18 November 2011 (UTC)